A Little Fitness

Good form vs. Injury

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:32:00 +0000

It goes without saying that every exercise should be done with good form. Why then are people risking injury by continually exercising with poor form?
Heavy Weights
Heavy weights demand good form and even though you might be able to cheat to get one last rep, how has that last rep improved your strength. The muscles you would normally use with good form have been supplemented by other muscles during the cheat reps so nothing is really accomplished and you risk injuring yourself in the process.
Metabolic circuits
During metabolic circuits the demand for good form is even greater. Here, by pushing yourself beyond what you are currently capable of you risk not only acute injury but also overuse injuries to surrounding muscles.

Take home tip: Stop your set as soon as your form deteriorates.

Time Saving Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:06:00 +0000

Are you looking to save time in the gym? Here are a few ways you can.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT allows you to burn more calories in the same amount of time as steady paced training. Not only that but you continue to burn calories after you've finished unlike steady paced training where the calorie burning stops when the training stops. To perform HIIT you just vary your speed between fast paced and slower paced. You can any piece of cardio equipment to train and the intervals are usually 1:1 or 1:2. That means that if you go fast for a minute you'll then go slow for one or two minutes before speeding up again. As little as 10 minutes of HIIT can provide a great training effect, definitely a time saver considering you probably spend at least double that doing steady paced training.

Compound Exercises

Multi joint exercises give you the biggest bang for your buck when training with weights. If you tried to isolate each specific muscle you'd spend all day in the gym. By using compound exercises you can target 3 or 4 different muscles groups in one exercise. Not only that but you can use heavier weights as well which will increase your total strength and help promote muscle growth. Co-ordination is also enhanced by compound exercises, your muscles and joints have to work together to perform the exercise properly.

Alternating Sets

Alternating back and forth between exercises allows you to perform more sets in a shorter period of time. The best way to alternate your sets is between upper and lower body exercises like pull ups and squats or between opposing muscle groups like your chest and back. If your program calls for 60 second rest periods between straight sets and you alternate between exercises while only resting for 30 seconds it's easy to see that you'll save quite a bit of time. You are able to do this because while you are working one muscles group the other is recovering.

Manage your rest periods

If rest periods are specified in your program then make sure you stick to them. Usually they are specified because you are trying to achieve a certain response from the program. If rest period aren't specified then take the time you need to recover and perform the next set in full. Don't rest more than you need and you won't waste as much time.

Focus on what you are doing

Do you spend too much time socializing in the gym, or too much time walking to the water fountain getting and getting a drink that you don't really need? Focus on the reasons you are training, to get fitter, healthier, stronger. Stick to the basics and you will not only save time, you will make better progress as well.

Are You Fit Enough?

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:05:00 +0000

Most people want to be fit and healthy, but what does this mean? Health is relatively easy to comprehend. You are healthy if you have no medical problems and nothing that will decrease your expected life span. Some level of physical fitness is obviously tied into personal health especially when you consider factors such as strength and cardiovascular fitness correlate well with living a long life, along with enabling you to perform daily tasks. With the health part covered, how then do you determine if you are fit enough?

You can be sure that your fitness requirements differ from almost everyone else. Think about it, every athlete has different requirements even if they play the same sport. There are different positions for every sport and different ways of approaching the position based on your strengths. In daily life we all have different tasks that require some form of fitness, be it lifting something, bending down to pick things up and moving around in general. You need to decide how much strength, power, speed, aerobic endurance, mobility, flexibility etc. you require, not only to live a healthy life but to fulfill the requirements of your individual lifestyle.

Check out ExRx.net to help decide your fitness requirements and ask yourself which you have reached and which you need to start working towards. Make sure you are always fit enough for the task at hand.

Training as a Team

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Training together with a partner or group can be one of the most motivating ways to train. It is a big advantage to have someone else training with you who can support you in your training. The support provided can be encouraging during your training, pushing you to work harder and accomplish more and a source of feedback that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

The motivation of making sure you don’t disappoint your partner(s) by failing to turn up can be strong. If you know that someone else is expecting you to train with them you don’t want to let them down. This means you won’t skip sessions and will improve your training frequency and consistency. I have written before about the advantages of frequent and consistent training, training with others means you won’t have to spend as much time motivating yourself.

You will however have an obligation to support and encourage others. This will help create a positive mindset for you and push your own training along. When positive energy flows between team members you push each to greater heights. Some days you will have to be the one that picks up the group, other days it will be you who is picked up and carried along. Great progress is made when teams work together. Harness that power and push your training to new levels.

Mental Mastery Response

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Please read and re-read this Mental Mastery article from Chris Shugart. It really explains the four stages of the health and fitness lifestyle. Really stages two and three will be the hardest to overcome.

Stage two, Conscious Incompetence is tough and as Chris writes "this is the biggest issue in the fields of health, fitness and bodybuilding." He goes on to give a couple of cures for this stage including self-directed anger. The key though is realization that you are rationalizing poor decisions. Identifying your rationalizations and choosing not to allow them is a direct step to stage three.

Stage three, Conscious Competence means you have taken control of your decisions and are now living a healthy lifestyle. Moving to stage four, Unconscious Competence requires time. Make enough of the right decisions for a long enough period of time and your won't even have to think about it anymore. The trap though is falling back into stage two. If you haven't quite made it to stage four and begin to allow yourself one or two small rationalizations they can snowball and you find yourself back where you began.

Be patient, be dedicated and work your way through the stages.

Follow up

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Further to yesterday's post Dietary Habits, check out the new T-Nation article. Specifically the part about trying to out-train bad diets. Also after taking a look at the exercise program that is suggested to be able to out-train your diet, I think I'd rather just eat properly.

Training Frequency

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:27:00 +0000

You basically have two options when choosing how frequently to exercise. You can do a lot of exercise a little bit of the time or a little bit of exercise a lot of the time. It certainly depends on your situation but for most people, even if you can get the same amount of exercise by training infrequently I think the latter is better.

By doing a little bit of exercise a lot of different times you have a few advantages over doing a lot of exercise infrequently. The first advantage is that you can still fit exercise in even on busy days. Certainly 20-30 minutes of available time is easier to find than a couple of hours. Also it is much easier to make up a 20-30 minutes session if you miss it than trying to make up a 2 hour session.

Secondly by practising more frequently your body learns the technique of the exercise much quicker. This allows you to push yourself to your limits much more safely. You will also recover much quicker which will also allow your next training session to be of high quality. The ability to recover should not be underestimated. Think of how sore you get every time you start a new exercise program. After a few sessions the soreness tends to decrease as your body adapts to the demands of the program. It’s ok to be sore at the start of a program but I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be that sore all the time. Unfortunately you probably will be if you exercise for long periods infrequently as your body struggles to adapt to that duration of exercise.

Adaptation is what we are trying to create with exercise. Once the body adapts it is time to create a new adaptation. It is therefore an advantage to try to force our bodies to adapt as quickly as possible. There is also much less chance of getting injured if our adaptations are small and frequent rather than large and infrequent.

If you have been doing a lot of exercise a little bit of the time, try frequent and intense sessions that force your body to create adaptations and progress quickly to your goals.

Dietary Habits

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:23:00 +0000

It's often said that you can't out-train a bad diet. Now there may be some people with the right genetics that don't need to worry about their diet but in general I agree. I would ask why you would even want too though? If your best results come from a mix of great training and diet, why settle for less than the best?

People always look for short cuts and the easiest option but in this instance I don't think that trying to out-train a bad diet is the easiest option. Sure there are instances where it is easier to pick bad food options but the training ramifications don't make it a short cut at all. Justification for poor food habits can only lead down one path, further poor food habits. Break your poor food habits one at a time. It takes about three weeks to break a habit. Pick one thing that you do poorly and eliminate that habit for three weeks and you'll find that you won't even want to get back too the bad habit.

Once your poor diet habits have been broken and hopefully good, new habits formed you might even find that the small amount of time you have available for exercise does allow good progress to occur. As long as your exercise intensity stays high, your improved dietary habits will give you better results than any additional exercise will.

Health and Fitness Standards

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:26:00 +0000

If you have been training for a while the desire to compare yourself and your abilities with other is probably strong. This desire for comparison and competition is fine if you have an outlet. What happens though if you train alone and don't have the opportunity to compete?

The first thing to do is compare yourself with yourself by comparing your present results with your past results. Regular benchmark session that fit in with your goals are a great idea so you can track your progress. What about how you compare with other though? Ideally you'll only be focusing on improving one or two aspects at a time so don't feel like you have to reach the top standards across all the fitness areas.

ExRx.net has a huge range of health and fitness calculators. Check them out and see how you compare. Don't be discouraged by any weaknesses you have, instead use your results to help shape your future health and fitness goals.

Sleep and Recovery from Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:23:00 +0000

Are you struggling to recover between training sessions? Getting a good night's sleep is probably the answer. Despite advancements in recovery techniques the most important recovery method we have is sleep. Sleep debt is a common problem and the article "Sleep may be Athletes' Best Performance Enhancer" from Psychiatric News explains why. Also there may be a "secret advantage" to getting enough sleep due to your brain continuing to learn even in the absence of practice while asleep.

Athletes aren't the only ones who benefit from getting enough sleep. Consider this CBS News article outlining a study linking sleep and obesity levels. Individuals who average 4 hours of sleep or less per night are 73% more likely to be obese than those who got a full nights rest. As the amount of sleep goes up to 5 hours a night the likelihood of obesity comes down to 50% and goes down further to 23% at 6 hours a night.

An average of 7-8 hours a night seems to be amount required for most people. You can also maximize the quality of your sleep by using the right sort of pillow and a quality mattress, ensuring your bedroom is dark and quiet and at a comfortable temperature. Short naps of 10-20 minutes during the day can help offset sleep debt but nothing beats a good night's sleep when it comes to recovery.

Bodyweight Training

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:07:00 +0000

Performing strength training without weights is not only possible, the world of gymnastics shows that fantastic strength and physiques can be built using only your bodyweight. Upper body strength developers like the push up and pull up are obvious choices as are squats, lunges and step ups for the lower body.

This Everything Push-Ups article from T-Nation has some great ideas and routines for push ups.

Pull up progression is covered in this Clear the bar article from Experience Life mag.

Beastskills has a range of tutorials that cover the entire body and includes a few different combo moves as well.

Putting everything into a routine is covered by Bodyweight Culture which has a series of 20 challenges to progress through. (Please note: you must register first to be able to view the challenges)

The equipment required for bodyweight training is minimal and in some cases non-existent, so don't let not having access to weights stand in the way of your strength progress.

Commitment and Consistency

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:32:00 +0000

You cannot have success without commitment and consistency. It doesn’t matter whether you want to improve your personal relationships, financial situation or health and fitness you must be committed and consistent in your approach. Committing to a nutrition and exercise plan will do wonders for your health and fitness. Consistency of effort allows you to improve quickly.

The great thing about being a beginner is that your progress can be rapid. To make the most rapid progress you need to commit to your plan. Three to five hours of exercise a week along with a solid nutritional plan will see you progressing very quickly. Committing to that amount of exercise is the key. Whether you decide to train for ½ an hour a day, an hour every second day or some other plan of attack, make sure you can fully commit to the plan. Having a regular schedule helps immensely as does having a training partner or personal trainer. By training with someone else you cannot afford to skip sessions or you will be letting them down as well as yourself.

Once you have committed to a plan the next key to success is your consistency of effort. It is no good just going through the motions when you are training. Approach each session, day or week with focus and endeavour to improve yourself each time. If you consistently put in the effort required you will achieve progress.

If you wish to do more than maintain what you already have then you must be committed and consistent in your training and nutrition.

Food vs Supplements

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:25:00 +0000

I bet you could construct a diet completely out of products that are considered dietary supplements. In fact I’ve seen it done. The V-Diet is quite popular and seemingly effective for a short time frame. My issue is not with the use of dietary supplements but the overuse and over reliance on these products.

There is a supplement for everything, from fast loss to sleep enhancement you can readily get a pill or powder to help. Despite this I don’t see people making great gains or huge progress. Why is this? Could it possibly be due to the fact that supplements aren’t the answer to looking great and feeling healthy. You would have to think so. In fact your real food diet and training program are much more likely to determine your success than your supplement program.

There is no point in spending time and money on inefficient supplements without first having your real food diet in place. Real food is the backbone of your progress. It should be able to provide you with the energy to not only get through the day but your training sessions also. By taking the time to establish healthy eating strategies you are giving yourself skills that can be used effectively forever and provide more benefit than the latest fad supplement.

It is only once you have your real food diet and training program in place and working effectively that you should consider adding in supplements. The best supplements are those that are found in real foods but are not easily eaten in the quantities that you’d like. Protein powders, fish oils and creatine are well studied and effective examples. Take your time in adding supplements to your diet, only add one at a time and measure it’s effectiveness before continuing to use it. Don’t become over reliant on supplement products and make nutritious whole foods the staples of your diet.

Behavioural Goals

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:04:00 +0000

Are you having trouble reaching your goals? It may be because you have set goals that are based on results rather than behaviours. Many goals based on results are hard to achieve because we can’t really control them. Losing fat, gaining muscle and improving performance aren’t exact sciences which is why there is so many different approaches to achieving these things. If you choose the wrong approach for your body, you probably won’t get the results you deserve.

When starting out you don’t really know what works for you so setting results based goals may be setting you up for failure. It is better to set your goals based on behaviours, things that you can control. For example, if you set a goal to exercise 4 times a week and you meet that goal you can feel proud that you have achieved something. This is very different to setting a goal to lose a certain amount of week based on 4 training sessions a week. What if you don’t lose the weight even though you’ve followed the plan?

If you set your goals based on behaviours you control your results through your self discipline. You can and should continue to monitor and evaluate your progress, doing so allows you to adjust your behavioural goals if necessary. Achieving your behavioural goals is a source of satisfaction and motivation that will help push you further along the health and fitness path.

The Winning Mentality

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:38:00 +0000

In my last post I mentioned briefly that winners take the necessary risks to win. Today I’d like to expand on that thought a little more. These thoughts can be applied to any set of goals you might have, winning is not confined to competitive sports. You win by reaching your goals whatever they may be.

Winners don’t see problems they see opportunities and solutions. Winners continue to learn and evaluate their progress providing them with solutions to problems. Learning and evaluation are keys to continued success, if all you see are obstacles and no way to overcome them you will become stuck and your progression will stall.

Winners have a solid plan, but they aren’t afraid to change if it isn’t working. Not everything will proceed exactly as you expect so take a chance and change the parts you don’t think are working. There is a saying, “Do what you have always done and you’ll get the results you’ve always gotten.” Fantastic if you are progressing as you’d like, terrible if you are not moving forwards or are going backwards.

Winners are competitive and challenge themselves. Challenge yourself by setting goals and give yourself a timeframe to complete them. Success will be easier to measure and you will push yourself harder knowing that you have goals to attain.

Finally winners continue to challenge themselves and don’t rest on past successes. There are always new challenges and new opportunities to improve. Continue to take these on and remain a winner.

Strengths and Weaknesses

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:04:00 +0000

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. The challenge is deciding whether to continue to improve your strengths and specialize in those areas or to bring your weaknesses up to par and improve more generally. This decision depends on your goals and your reasons for training.

A person who is trying to improve their overall fitness, lose some weight and generally look and feel healthier is probably better served by training to improve their weaknesses. If you determine that you are lacking strength, then by focusing on improving your strength you will look and feel better. Similarly if you lack endurance you probably don't feel able to move very far without running out of breath. By focusing on that as a fitness quality you can improve your overall fitness and continue towards your goals.

Athletes training for performance are different however. Although they need to reach minimum standards across the requirements of their sport, once those minimum standards are met they are best served by focusing on their strengths. This really goes against the most common thought of bringing up your weaknesses to become a more complete athlete but outstanding performance comes from being able to use your strengths to their fullest. Think of the most explosive and dynamic athletes, they are the ones who utilize their strengths the best rather than minimizing their weaknesses. They also take the chances required to win rather than minimizing the risk of losing.

Once again it depends on your goals as to which path you take but as an athlete it is better to excel at one aspect than be good at none.

Specificity of Training

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:15:00 +0000

Your training must be specific to your goals. This is particularly true if you are training for performance. If your performance relies on you being able to run, then you must be able to run. Lance Armstrong’s performance in the NY marathon is a great demonstration of someone seemingly having the appropriate attributes to perform well but not having trained specifically enough. A sub 3 hour marathon is a great performance for someone who didn’t train for it at all but considering Lance is the best road cyclist the world has seen you would think his performance would have been closer to an elite one.

Unfortunately for Lance his fitness on the bike didn’t transfer to running fitness. If it didn’t work well for one of the world’s elite athletes then it it’s probably not going to work for a genetically average person. Fortunately you can reach your goals despite your genetics if you train specifically for them. Increased strength will require you to lift heavy weights. Increased running speed will require fast running speeds during training. Ball sports require motor skills like running and jumping that must be practised as often as hand and foot skills like throwing and kicking.

Cross training can occur through using general means to supplement your specific training. A sprinter for instance will lift weights to increase their strength to help propel them down the track. This is in addition to their sprint training that trains their technique and speed. If all they do is lift weights they will become stronger but their running technique will fall apart and they’ll get slower.

Make sure sufficient time is devoted to your specific training before adding general training means. This will allow you to progress most directly to your goals.

The Importance of Strength

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:32:00 +0000

I have previously written about the importance of strength here. In the past few days I have read two other blogs that really highlight the importance of strength, not just for performance but also for longevity.

In his blog Alwyn Cosgrove talks about strength as the greatest equalizer in sport and the importance of strength training in physical preparation. Check out his Moments of Clarity IV.
Lou Schuler from Male Pattern Fitness notes "I've cited studies in my books, and probably on MPF as well, showing that strength is correlated with longevity in men and women. The correlation between cardiovascular fitness and longevity is probably stronger, but it's pretty clear that muscular fitness matters for those seeking a longer, healthier life" in a post on 40 years of aerobics.

It would seem quite clear that no matter what some form of strength training is vital to reaching your goals.

Abandoning Gimmicks

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:14:00 +0000

Watching late night or morning TV you are certain to see a string of commercials extolling the virtues of some new piece of exercise equipment or diet. These ads always seem so appealing with their use of fitness models showing just how easy it is to look great. Fabulous customer testimonials are also a feature of these ads invariably with before and after shots showing just how much smaller they are compared to their previously oversized pants.

I think it’s great that these real people have been able to transform themselves. The question has to be asked though, was it the diets or equipment that caused the results or the people that caused the results? I mean there are so many different products and all of them seem to work, so why is one better than another?

Some are obviously better. Long term results will weed out the true gimmicks but even then it depends on the person following the system. Tried and tested weight management techniques have worked for years and will continue to work. The similarities between these techniques though are much greater than the differences. Details change but the basics don’t.

In order for change to occur it is you who must change. It is your attitude, will power and decision making that will bring about change, not a new diet or exercise equipment gimmick.

Sabotaging your Success

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Are you subconsciously sabotaging your own success? This can occur when you reach higher levels than you have previously. Success, even when it’s expected can make you feel uncomfortable. If you have changed your body shape dramatically or reached higher levels of performance you may not be ready for the increased attention you receive. Many people experience this situation and some will subconsciously sabotage their own success. They feel it is easier to go back to being average and become wallpaper once again.

Mental preparation is therefore vital for continued success. Not only preparing for how you will look or feel once you have reached your goal but also how others will see you and how the extra attention will affect you. Prepare yourself to deal with everything in a positive manner and use it as motivation to push you forward.

Once you are prepared for the extra attention you won’t subconsciously sabotage yourself because you are uncomfortable with you new situation. This will allow you to set new goals and progress even further.

Dealing with Injury

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:13:00 +0000

What do you do when injury strikes? Even with fantastic preparation and injury prevention techniques sometimes injury is unavoidable, especially in contact sports. The first thing is to establish the extent of the injury. If it's in any way serious it's usually necessary to see a specialist to diagnose the exact nature of the injury.

Follow the specialist's advice when it comes to rehabilitating the site of the injury but don't be afraid to ask questions. Ask for specific rehab advice and if the injury has been caused by overuse or poor training techniques ensure the underlying cause is also treated. Failing to make this sort of correction is only going to set you up to injure yourself again.

Once the exact nature of the injury is known and treatment proscribed you need to plan how to keep the rest of your training going. If you don't remain active and train the unaffected parts of your body you will fall behind. Not only will you be missing training during the rehab period but you will then spend more time just trying to catch up to your pre-injury level. This effectively doubles your injury time and pushes your ability to achieve your goals back much further.

You will most likely need to adjust your training plan during the rehab period. However if you remain active and continue along a similar training path you should still reach your goals in an acceptable time frame.

Pre and Post Training Nutrition

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Your nutrition in the hour before and after training is critical to your success. By using good pre-training nutritional practices you are not only preparing yourself well for the session, you are also getting a head start on recovering well from the session.

Choosing what to eat isn't too hard, anything you would eat post-training is a good place to start. Keep it simple and easy to digest and make sure you don't overeat. There is nothing worse than training with an overfull stomach. If you experience any sort of nausea you have probably eaten to much or eaten the wrong type of food. Some of you who have been training for a while may be used to training on an empty stomach and may experience some discomfort initially. Start with very small meals and gradually increase them. Making sure you're muscles are full and ready to go before training provides a huge performance boost.

Post-training nutrition is so obviously important it's surprising that more people don't take it seriously. The post-training period is when our bodies are most receptive to anything we eat and therefore the time when most gains can be made. Even for those on low carb plans should be sure to include some, if not most of their daily carb allotment into this period. Your muscle glycogen stores are depleted by training and you will be at your most insulin sensitive, so any carbs eaten post training will be used to replenish muscle glycogen and won't be stored as fat. Protein is also very important as your muscles have been broken down and ingestion of protein creates the amino acid building blocks of your muscles.

How much protein and carbs to ingest depends on your size and weight but a 50:50 protein:carb ratio is often suggested. Convenience is often a factor in post-training nutrition and a large portion of the enormous supplement industry is devoted to products catering to post-training nutrition. Everyone has different requirements and tastes so I don't want to recommend any one product. Don't always choose the cheapest though as the quality can vary substantially and remember there are plenty of real food options for this important meal as well.

Combating DOMS

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:44:00 +0000

We’ve all felt the effects of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) before. Delayed because it usually takes a day for the soreness to eventuate. Often you get out of bed the day after a session feeling ok but get gradually worse throughout the day. Just starting out or are returning after a long layoff it is common to experience DOMS after the first couple of training sessions. Even experienced exercisers can experience DOMS after a change of program or intensity. It seems unfair, just as you’re excited about a new exercise regime the soreness strikes. It’s not too surprising though, our body has to have some way of slowing us down and protecting itself from more serious injury.

The good news is DOMS is only temporary and we can reduce the severity so it doesn’t wreak too much havoc on our training or daily lives. The number one thing we can do to reduce DOMS is to be cautious during our first session with new exercises or intensities. I know the desire is there to push yourself hard but your body will thank you later if you ease into it. Still once you have DOMS how can you reduce the severity?

The first thing to understand is that our bodies need fuel to recover. It gets this fuel from the food we eat or from the stores we already have. This is why post training nutrition is important and why there is such a huge market for nutritional products that help us refuel out bodies post training. Just fuelling the body isn’t enough. We need to get the fuel into the sore muscles. There is a number of different ways to do this. Anything that promotes blood flow to the sore areas is good.

The first thing to try is some light exercise emphasising the affected areas. Again I stress this must be light exercise. It’s no good trying to push too hard as you’ll only make the soreness worse. Climbing stairs or walking uphill works well for the legs and similarly light pushing and pulling work well for the upper body.

Light massage either by yourself through the use of foam rollers or balls (tennis ball work well) or from someone else for the hard to reach places gets the blood flowing to the right areas. Performing a gentle warm up and the stretching the affected areas can be helpful in restoring the muscles to their proper length. You can also try contrast showers. Sprint coach Charlie Francis recommends cold for 1 minute, the hot for 3 minutes, repeated 3 times. There should be a noticeable difference between the hot and cold temperatures and you should feel refreshed afterwards.

Try these methods and see which work best for you. Don’t let DOMS derail your training right when your enthusiasm is highest.

Nutrition Basics

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:40:00 +0000

Keep it fairly simple, there is no need to count calories or weigh your food until the basics are being done on a consistent basis. By consistent basis I mean 90% of the time, this leaves 3 or 4 meals a week that can be outside these guidelines. Most people will get the results they are after without having to go any further or follow a more strict diet.

1. Eat 5-6 meals a day. Breakfast is the most important meal and must not be missed. It elevates the metabolism right from the start of the day and ensures you don’t overeat later in the day. Other meals should be smaller and at regular intervals. Meal times should include breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, post training and dinner.

2. Eat protein at every meal. Good choices include red meat, chicken, fish and eggs. Dairy especially yogurt is good, milk and cheese less so. Plant and soy proteins are also ok occasionally.

3. Eat vegetables or fruit at every meal. Most people don’t get enough fibre in their diet and vegetables and fruit are the best sources. Also try to get most of your carbohydrates from vegetables and fruit, which leads me to the next point.

4. Limit your starchy and processed carbs, these include potatoes and products made from potatoes like hot chips and crisps. Most cereals are heavily processed, try muesli or rolled oats. White bread is very processed, try multi grain and keep it to a couple of slices a day. Rice and pasta can be eaten, preferably after training sessions and keep the portions small.

5. Eat healthy fats, fish oil is a must, 6-7 capsules a day. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of fish oils. Other good choices include nuts, avocados and olive oil.

6. Try to drink about 3 litres of water a day. This will keep you hydrated and help flush any harmful toxins from the body. Sugary drinks including fruit juice have too many carbs while alcohol not only dehydrates you it also stops your body from burning fat while it processes the alcohol.

Remember following these guidelines 90% of the time is a great place to start and you have 3-4 times a week that you can indulge a little. Training can only ever be 50% of the equation so your diet must be in order to see the best results.

More motivation from other sources

noreply@blogger.com (richard@alittlefitness.com.au) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:41:00 +0000

Check out FitBuff, one of my posts is featured this week. They feature a number of different blogs under different categories.

I have also come across a few different motivation for health and fitness related blogs in the last few days.
The Educated Athlete covers categories such as mindset, leadership and emotions.

Simply Fitness has a post on Motivation for running when you don't want to! The tip about getting yourself to exercise everyday by simply getting out the door with your exercise gear on is brilliant and something I definitely think works. I have usually gone for just making myself do a warm up when I don't feel like training. This works for me because the warm up has the effect of getting me moving and clears my mind. This in turn makes me feel better about the training I have planned so I invariably end up training properly and successfully. By simplifying it further to just making yourself get outside with your gear on I think you are further increasing you chances for success.

MusclePost also has a post about motivating yourself to work out. The are some useful and improtant tips like tracking your progress, setting goals and changing your workouts to continue the callenge.